What circuit does neutral safety switch inhibit? 5.0 GL w/ OMC side control

[Augoose]

I'm in the process of troubleshooting what I think is a failing neutral safety switch. Intermittently, the boat will not turn over at all - not even a click. When I shake the throttle control, it will start, leading me to believe the neutral safety switch is failing or the wiring at the switch is failing.
However, on a few occasions my wife has been pulling me up on the slalom and after putting the boat in fwd gear and taking out the slack in the rope, she will "hit it" and the boat will immediately stutter and die. Following attempts to restart suffer the same symptoms as above.
Could a failing neutral safety switch kill the spark to the engine while the boat is underway, or does that circuit only come into play during starting of the engine?
Thanks!

 

[alldodge]

Neutral safety only keeps the motor from being cranked unless its in neutral

The stutter and die can be fuel or electrical. If the kill switch is not making a good connection it can kill the motor. Could be you just need to start cleaning connections, maybe corrosion.

 

[Augoose]

Thanks AllDodge. I assumed that that circuit only controlled the cranking. The dying-during-launch issue is something that ONLY happens to my wife, so who knows what's going on there....:facepalm:
I figured they may be related as I'm not having issues with any other component that I know of at this time.
We are headed out again today but I plan to splice the leads to the neutral switch temporarily if I run into another no start situation. I'll then pull the side control, check connections, and replace/clean items as necessary. Thanks!

 

[Augoose]

Just some follow up. The boat started up in the driveway, but sure enough when we got to the ramp, no start.
I pulled the two leads off the neutral safety switch and the top spade connector broke off the switch. Clearly that was part of the issue. I spliced the leads together and the boat started.

I also noticed that when I spliced the leads going to the neutral safety switch, my kill switch was bypassed. Is this correct? In other words, I could remove the lanyard from the kill switch and the boat continued to run. I assumed these two components were on two separate circuits, no?

The boat started every time and ran fine the rest of the afternoon. Beyond a new neutral safety switch, anything else I should consider based on the above?
Thanks!

 

[alldodge]

I assumed these two components were on two separate circuits, no?

Yes two issues